Fellwood
by Cursor
Summary: War. War never changes. We were only children when we heard the sirens for the first time. I'd be lying if I'd say I wasn't scared, but knowing now how scared I should have been, I can definitely say that I wasn't scared enough…   Prologue part 2 up
1. Intro

**Fellwood**

By: Cursor

**Intro**

War. War never changes.

We were only children when we heard the sirens for the first time. We were all told about what was going on, about the Great War, but no one believed it would go so far.

Herded like sheep, half of the town rushed to the vault, too many stayed, too many just couldn't believe it.

I remember seeing the streak of smoke in the sky, right before being shoved into a dark cave. I remember the crying, the children were all crying.

Thank God, wherever he is, for Edward Crosswire.

Mr. Crosswire's connections are the only thing that brought a vault to Elwood City, a vault big enough for everyone, our places reserved.

They say the only God is irony, Mr. Crosswire never made it inside, he was just out of town, and did not make it back.

Sue Ellen's father, Mr. Armstrong lost his job in the beginning of the Resource Wars, and was hired by Vault-Tec thanks to Muffy's father, with him as Overseer, it seemed like we were much better off than anything outside. But we were sealed in, we grew up into teens in an environment of fluorescent and steel. And though we had all the comforts of a high-tech home, we never got used to not seeing the sun.

Among the children, I somehow became an alpha, a leader; our small group of friends became a wide circle, our parents encouraged our independence, how we managed our responsibilities ourselves, without having to bother the grown ups.

The time passed, and we were teenagers, ten years is a long time to live in a Vault. One day, Mr. Mannino, the ex-owner of the Sugar Bowl, attacked and murdered several vault residents, before taking his own life. Something went wrong at that moment, some sort of tear between people, paranoia and mistrust became something all too common amongst the adults, and it caused us children to break apart from them, little by little and by the time we were 19, we hardly spoke between us at all.

And then… the noises started.

It was faint at first, like a rattling air-vent. But with time it grew louder, and stronger until every bang sounded as though a battering ram was thrust against the walls.

There was no rhythm, no indication of when or where it will happen; we knew that could only mean one thing.

Some-ONE or some-THING, was trying to get inside and whatever it was, it was not benevolent.

I'd be lying if I'd say I wasn't scared, but knowing now how scared I should have been, I can definitely say that I wasn't scared enough…


	2. Prologue

**Prologue**

I remember lying down on my bed that evening, it was the third week to the noises, and we were all on edge. The Brain, and Buster were sitting around our room, one was busy calculating, while the other was lifting dumbbells.

I never did get used to Buster's new physique.

Cooped up in the vault wasn't good for my best friend, he became anxious, almost claustrophobic. At some point I suggest going to the gym, as it was the largest, most spacious room in the vault. There were the dining and conference halls, but those were jam packed with chairs and tables, hardly room to move around. Wouldn't you know it, Buster agreed, but only if I'd come with him. I obliged, and we went regularly three times a week.

But after a while, I guess, it wasn't enough for Buster, what he lacked in brains, he more than made up for in brawn, and was now easily the strongest person in the vault, buffed up like a Californian governor in his prime, he had been like an enforcer, making sure none of the others fooled around, we needed to stick together in this.

Brain became the organizational mind behind it all, fairly and evenly taking charge of schedules, chores, and many other aspects. His work made our life a lot easier, he was great friend, and also a great asset.

"We need to do something about that." I remember Buster's comment as the banging started off again in the distance, not loud enough to disturb us.

"I'm afraid there's not much to do, unless you can convince Mr. Armstrong to send someone out to investigate." Brain replied, I remember chuckling at that, the mere notion of leaving the vault was ridiculous back then.

"Don't worry Buster, I'm sure whatever it is will get bored and leave eventually." I said, straightening up and stretching, I hated being cooped up in the evenings. Still do.

Buster smirked, "If we can get B-boy's voice outside, it will die of boredom for sure." He stung, obviously referring to the field-mouse's terribly long monologues.

"Amusing, seems like you've finally reached fourth grade humor Baxter, congratulations." Alan "The Brain" replied casually, not even bothering to stop typing on the shared computer.

Buster rolled his eyes at me and I grinned back, I loved it when they took turns outwitting each other, kept their minds sharp, and was funny to behold. One of the two things that really made me smile back then.

The other had just entered through the door, to Buster's dismay.

"Hey, ever heard of knocking?" He called at the door.

"Sure kid, good luck with that." She replied, pointedly saying something unrelated to express her disinterest in what he had to say.

"Ignore me will ya… you crazy chicks are…. Think ye're all that…." Buster rumbled to himself, "I'm gonna shower, and I'm coming out naked, so you'd better not still be here by then." He said, retreating behind the wall of the shower part of the room, throwing his clothes out at his bed.

"I'm not worried, without a magnifying glass I don't think I'm in any danger of seeing something I don't want to." She replied, and Alan quickly let out a laugh.

"Good one, Macdonald." He said, mock saluting her.

"Can't you rabbits get along, Molly?" I asked, she gave me an incredulous look behind her long front bangs.

Molly and I had been friends long before the war, but it was down here where we became closer. She had grown into a fine young woman, athletic, beautiful, and leader of the Vault's very own group of "thugs", The "Tough Customers" I always thought that ripped jeans jacket over the tight vault suit made her hotter than any nuclear meltdown. She was still taller than me, though, I didn't really like feeling short next to her, but it grew on me, really. I liked what she did with her hair, she let it grow longer, keeping it loose, but leaving the front bangs as well, so her eyes were hardly ever visible. She had a rare genetic trait, since one of her distant parents was an albino, so she was born with red eyes, a one-in-a-million chance, so she always hid them behind her hair.

"Oh, we get along just fine, it's a rabbit thing…An aardvark like yourself wouldn't understand, very intricate subtext…" her smile broadened as she tried to keep herself from laughing.

"Okay, okay, no more jokes on his expense…" She said, "Unless he starts." I nodded helplessly, and she chuckled at me, leaning over and lightly pecking me on the lips, then it hit me.

"Oh, the banging's near the girl dorms!" I called out suddenly, startling her.

She flicked my nose painfully in retaliation. "Yeah, on my wall, actually, what a racket. Prunella said she divined it was some sort of big lizard monster with horns." She let out a small laugh disguised in a cough, "Said that while in trance she could see claws, horns and teeth."

"Well, you never know what's going on out there, the radiation might have made a monster or two appear." I shrugged.

"Actually, Arthur, radiation would only actually create radical 'huge monster' phenomenon over several successful generations of creatures. If they all survive, and if they are not sterile, as this amount of radiation is likely to cause." Brain interjected I shrugged again, not really caring. I had already made my opinion known. I believed it was a group of survivors, begging for a place of shelter, but not realizing how to get to the front entrance.

I sat up on the bed so Molly could sit next to me, and hugged her close, as the door slid open, and wouldn't you know it, my little sister came through.

"Hey Molly," She greeted, Molly returned a nod, Dora Winifred Read, now fifteen. I had to admit to myself, if the nuclear war had done one thing that was good, was bring my sister around from the obnoxious and annoying person she was, to the sister I have today.

We pretty much stuck together when we first entered the vault, she was scared, and she kept around me all of the time. Her behavior mellowed, and soon she and her friend Emily became the leaders of their own clique in the younger groups.

"What's up D.W?" I asked, and then remembered her room was right across from Molly's. "Banging got you scared?" She harrumphed.

"I'm not scared," She complained, "It's just creeping me out, that's all. What're you GAH!" She suddenly screamed, I think my ears bled, she fled out of the room in a hurry, and for just one moment, a steel-cold fear gripped me, and my imagination raced as an image of Prunella's monster pounced at us.

"Bah! Not only you've got _**her**_ here, now your sister!" Buster called angrily, desperately searching for his towel, his face flushed red.

The banging hadn't stopped until late at night, with the doors closed we hardly heard it in the boys' dormitories. D.W. returned eventually, along with Emily, several of her friends. We were also joined by Francine, Sue-Ellen and Fern, so we gave a try at a slumber party, in two words, great success.

By morning, we were all asleep, Buster's face was full of toothpaste, and all were happy and content. It was later that noon when a message was heard throughout the vault intercom. Overseer Armstrong spoke through the speakers in his usual confident voice.

"Good day residents, an assembly will be held in the Conference Hall in twenty minutes, all vault residents are required to arrive. Good day residents."

Whispering started throughout the entire hallway, "Hey!" I called, "We've got the pipes, electric system AND a battery leak to fix, and instead of two hours, we have twenty minutes to do it, so I suggest we get to work!" No one argued, and twenty minutes later, we were at the conference hall, job completed at record time.

"Good day residents." Mr. Armstrong said, standing at the edge of the room, microphone in hand. Everyone went silent, and he continued, "I am sure you are all worried about the loud noises we've been suffering from recently." A murmur of agreement rippled throughout the hall. "After much consideration, we have decided to send a security team outside of the Vault, to see for ourselves what is out there, and should it be a pest, or anyone wishing us harm, to chase it away. The taskforce is voluntary, and all able men may join, volunteers should come see me once we're done, I'll be waiting here. The taskforce will leave tomorrow morning, you may all come and send them off, if you please. Good day residents."

At least it was short, and concise.

If only… if only we had know, if only we could have imagined what the next day would look like…

It would be the second great trauma in my life, a day that will haunt me for the rest of my life…

To be continued…


	3. Prologue Part 2

**Fellwood**

**Prologue part 2**

When we amassed in front of the vault doors, we were nothing short of ecstatic. Finally, we would see something not made of metal, something not lit by fluorescent lights, finally… I don't know really, we just wanted something different, something which was not the vault.

The Overseer had presented the search squad to us, though I only cared about one person there, really, Binky Barnes. He used to be a "Tough Customer" back when all they were was a group of kids throwing water balloons in the playground. He quit to join the security force, he was also a good friend. One of the bravest people I know. Mei-Lin, his little sister, was almost twelve at the time I think.

I wasn't surprised that Prunella wasn't there, she and her older sister had been arrested and placed into custody the previous day for unlawful disruption of public order. They freaked out when the Overseer announced we were opening the doors, they called out against it, and practically lost their marbles.

Security teams were standing in front, covering the vault door, in case whatever was out there was hostile. The Overseer gave a short speech, commending the courage of the volunteers, suggesting that we hold prayers for them until they returned, funny, didn't think Mr. Armstrong was the religious type.

I know I wasn't, I didn't like to count the off chance that some deity who didn't protect us from nuclear war might decide to be nice to me. I had Buster, myself, Slink and Molly get some guard armor and weapons from the storehouses. Slink was in second-in-charge of inventory, so he had access to everything. The tan rabbit wasn't best of friends with me, really, but he respected my leadership and helped out when needed.

With us were D.W., Emily, Mei-Lin (Binky's adopted sister), James (Molly's younger brother), The Brain, Rattles, Sue-Ellen, Francine and Prunella's friend, Marina, the blind rabbit. If you really need to ask why there were so many rabbits around, you obviously know nothing about rabbits.

We were all sitting inside the security chamber off the side of the entrance hall, didn't want to get caught with "borrowed" vault gear, cleaning the toilets did not sound like a fun job to do for the rest of my life. So we sat there, waiting, until finally, with one last gulp, the security chief opened the vault door.

Loud conversations silenced immediately, as the sirens went off, red spin-lights spreading abnormal shadows on the walls, as the mechanical arm latched unto the door, pulling it back, and slowly rolling it to the side. No visibility whatsoever past the few feet where the light from inside the vault lit up the dark cave. Whatever generator was working outside when we first came in must've died years ago. The silence continued, as Binky, the first of the search squad took the first step outside of the vault.

"What does it look like?" Marina asked, I remember Francine shushing her. But I said, "It's dark." We were hypnotized, faces practically glued to the glass window. I felt Molly shivering next to me, and held her hand tightly in mine.

Binky advanced several steps until he reached the edge of the light cast from inside. He turned back, flipped a thumb up, and then turned back, pressing the light button on his pip-boy.

Ah, the pip-boy, I neglected to talk about it, the device which was now an inseparable part of any vault citizen, a wrist mounted computer, fused into our bodies and irremovable. Once we turned 11, we were slapped on with this thing, easier to keep track of that way. It allowed instant access to the vault PA system, and the vault radio, not to mention the various other uses it had. Health monitoring, stimpack injection port, chore list, alarm clock, schedule planner, easy access to most computer and every function you'd find on a PDA. Since our vault was one of the last built, our pip-boys were of the newest model, their database was large, and they were able to scan any object and display information about it, should they have it in their database.

Back to what I was saying, Binky gave a thumb up, turned back around and flipped on the light in his pip-boy. We only got a glance at what was on the other side of the darkness before Binky was ripped in two. Whatever it was, it was huge. I felt Molly's hand clench on my own painfully, and gasps from the girls. From outside, screams and gunfire; when the creatures charged inside, I knew it was a lost battle.

Monsters, some of them must have been over twelve feet tall, huge, horned lizards, rows of razor sharp teeth, and front claws that could tear apart a tank. But they weren't just big, they were quick… so fast, it was moments before they were inside, shrugging off small arms fire as though it was a small mosquito sting.

I'm not going to talk about what happened to the audience, to my parents… to my youngest sister... Those things killed everyone in there, and moved further into the vault, fortunately not paying any attention to the small security chamber on the side.

I don't remember much of what was going on, only that everyone around me was screaming or crying, Buster was swearing, Brain was mumbling to himself, D.W. wanted mom and dad, Mei-Lin had passed out and Marina was not responsive.

Molly shook my shoulders; apparently I've been stone frozen for minutes, "Arthur! ARTHUR!" She screamed, "What do we do? What do we do Arthur?" I stuttered, I didn't know what to say. I anticipated something hostile might be out there… but nothing like this, nothing that could massacre so many people in moments.

"We have to get out of the vault, and seal them in." I said, Francine yelled back at me, "No, my family's inside, we have to go help them!" I lost my nerve, probably, because I slapped her, the others looked at me when they heard the resounding noise.

"They're DEAD Francine," I called out angrily, pushing her face against the glass. "Look!" I called out, "They're dead, everyone! My parents, Mr. Armstrong, everyone! The guns do nothing to those monsters! The only way to be safe, the only way for us to survive is to get out of here, and seal those monsters in! We open this door, run out into the cave; I'll stay behind and pull the vault switch, then break it. I'm fast enough to make it before the vault door closes." I explained my hasty plan; at that point I was far beyond thinking of anyone who might've been trapped in the vault.

"No Arthur!" Molly begged, "I'll stay behind, I'm faster than you." I wanted to slap her too, but I couldn't, I wanted to say something, to argue, but Francine interjected.

"I'll do it, I'm the fastest one here." I looked at her, the side of her face was red, I had overreacted. We all nodded; there was no time to argue.

Right before we opened the door, Slink asked, "What if there are more of them out there?"

"Well, at least we'll have somewhere to run to." I answered, waiting for everyone to be ready, before opening the door and starting a mad dash towards the exit.

Marina was holding on to Buster, but fell as she slipped on some blood, she was on top of a body… it was impossible to tell who, and she was covered in blood. She started screaming, but luckily, Buster was strong enough to hoist her over his shoulder and sprint with her.

Once outside, I remember looking back, when I heard Francine smashing the handle on the vault door controls, I remember how she looked me in the eyes, before running inside the vault, letting the door seal her in, she was always braver than I was, and that stung far worse than any indignity about her not following my plan.

We emerged out into the cool cave air, lighting up our pip boys, Molly was holding my arm, as though to make sure I was still behind her. We followed the trail towards the exit of the vault, but something caught my eye in the dark.

In the dark corner next to a large stalagmite, two burning red eyes were shining in the dark. It sent chills down my spine, we ran all the way to the exit, and then finally stopped before we went out into daylight. We needed to adjust, ten years without daylight is a long time.

We collapsed on the floor, convinced of our security for now, after all we sealed those things inside the vault, didn't we? I felt a pang of guilt when Buster asked where Francine was.

"She stayed inside, the idiot." I answered breathlessly, Molly hugged me tightly, I felt her tears slide down beneath my armor, soaking through my vault-suit. I hugged her back and whispered in her ear.

:It'll be alright, we're out now, we're okay." I said, what an idiot. It was a day's walk back to Elwood city, and we were all rather broken from our ordeal.

We sat there for another fifteen minutes before the outside glare lessened, and then, standing up, holding hands, we went outside…

The once beautiful valley was now spread beneath us, what was once a highway was now a shattered, ancient looking rubble serpent, what was once a forest reserve green with trees was now dead brown with the occasional barren stump, or tree jutting out of the ground in odd angles. We hadn't taken any water, save for the canteens on our uniforms.

Off in the distance I could see vague shapes that resembled the city, as in resembled I mean, what was left of it. But if we persisted we could probably get to Crosswire motors within a day, take shelter there, and maybe find a working car.

We started walking, taking in the dead, yet somehow beautiful scenery. It was nothing like we hoped, but I had too keep everyone's spirit up.

"Alright, we can breathe," I said, "Try not to finish up your canteens, and don't drink any water out here, it's probably irradiated." Good job Arthur, keeping the spirits up. After a moment's thought, I realized, "If we can make it in town, we can pick up water bottles, those are likely to be safer. I know we've just been through a bad trip. But if we want to live, we need to keep going, instead of looking back." I held Molly's hand, and my sister's. James was hugging Molly tightly. Mei Lin was now being piggybacked by Brain. Marina and Buster, now covered in blood and shaking both held each other. Slink seemed pretty casual to me, almost calm, but his arrhythmic foot thumping gave away his anxiety.

"We need to be strong, we need to keep going, we need to survive, otherwise leaving the Vault would have had no purpose. I need to know that you guys are with me, that you're willing to go on and not give up. If not for me than for your families, they wouldn't want you to give up." I said confidently, I lost my mother and my sister there, I knew exactly how they felt.

"I'm with you Arthur, and I think it's safe to say we Tough Customers are all down with this." She looked at Rattles and Slink, both nodded, she smiled at them proudly.

"Us too, Arthur." Alan said.

Buster nodded and added, "We're your buddies, no way we're giving up while you're leader."

I noticed Emily was holding something in one of her hands, it was bloody, it was Binky's badge, with his picture. "I… thought Mei Lin might want this." She said sadly.

I nodded, "Let's get moving, we have a long walk until we get home."

So we walked, we walked for a day and a half before we reached Crosswire Motors. We had a run in with wild dogs, and some huge roaches, but we were otherwise unharmed. When we got there, the place was ransacked. We armed ourselves with various spare parts Brain thought he could make things out of, and a tire iron or two, could be useful if we ran out of bullets.

We decided to check the reservoir, but we saw some large mutated creatures near the water and decided we should probably steer clear.

We were almost at the school when we first encountered them… raiders…

Sick sadistic human beings, bent entirely on killing or enslaving what came in their path.

They made the first shot, nearly got me, we fired back, but our weapons were no match, we were forced to retreat. We took refuge in Marina's old house, which was left standing by some miracle. That night Molly and I made love for the first time. We never had the privacy to do that in the vault, and I guess we both wanted to do it before one of us was killed; a very likely option then.

We decided that early in the morning, we'd strike back, raid their weapon supply and kick them out, Brain determined their base of operations to be the school. So Buster, Slink, Brain, Molly, Rattles and I left early in the morning. Leaving Marina and Sue-Ellen in charge of the kids; I didn't like how quiet Sue-Ellen was the whole time, but I paid it no attention.

I took point, we caught the raiders by complete surprise, we managed to take and hold the entrance hall quickly, and we were very good with corridors, unlike the raiders, who ambushed on open ground. By the time we got to their leader, few of them were left alive.

I had no qualms about killing people, I don't think any of us had after what we saw, it was kill or be killed now. No one wanted to lose a friend because of hesitation. We were determined to live, to thrive, to destroy anyone who would deny us that.

They were well armed with submachine guns, one hunting rifle, the leader was packing grenades too. He put up quite a fight, nicked Buster on the shoulder, almost got me in the leg, but luckily, Brain caught him in the head with the hunting rifle when he was reloading. He had an old, broken down assault rifle, jammed more than it shot, really.

I guess the worst part was stripping the bodies and then cleaning them out. We needed the clothes, and we couldn't keep the bodies around, we had to burn them. We didn't want any wild dogs coming to eat the corpses. While doing so I noticed one of them was about D.W.'s age, already a killer, she nearly got me in the head too. She had signs of physical abuse on her. It made me mad, the world had gone crazy.

We picked up the rest of the group, and whatever canned supplies we could from Marina's house later that noon. I had Molly and her gang wash up as much of the school as they could so the kids wouldn't have to see the blood.

When Brain asked me what we were going to do next, I only motioned at the sign saying "Welcome to Elwood City" who someone scribbled over, so it now said, "Welcome to Fellwood City."

"Simple Brain, we're going to build Fellwood."


	4. Chapter 1

**Fellwood**

**Chapter 1**

"Looks decent, too much TMI though, near the end there, don't you think?" The large white rabbit asked, handing Arthur back the leather-bound journal. The Aardvark had found it in one of the school lockers; the few pages of it that were used were now unreadable anyway.

"Molly didn't mind, and I thought it should be recorded." Arthur replied nonchalantly, getting some dirt out of his ear.

"You didn't say anything about…" Buster started, but Arthur stopped him before he could continue.

"I don't think anyone should read about children crying themselves to sleep, and then crying themselves away from nightmares. I don't think someone needs to know about how you can't fall asleep unless exhaustion takes you." He spoke slowly, deliberately, "We're all suffering from deep trauma, but these aren't memories I want to keep. Knowing what happened is one thing, remembering how I felt… that's another."

Buster's ears drooped almost comically, despite all of his physical changes, he was still the same, good old Buster, and Arthur could hardly resist, he took two threatening steps forwards, causing the rabbit to shy backwards a bit, unsure, before giving him a strong-armed bear hug. "Hey! What's the big idea?" The rabbit called out.

"Nothing, nothing, you're just awesome, that's all." The aardvark answered, chuckling, and let go of his friend, turning back around to look at the old map of Elwood City. For several days now they've been performing scouts of the surrounding areas, trying to find more ammunition, equipment and food. After finishing half of their supply of clean water (including bottled water they found in various houses), they finally resigned to the idea of eating irradiated food. But they intended to do so only if, or rather when their food and water supply ran out.

"So we got Brain, Slink and Rattles out now, right? Then we have you, me and Molly out towards the hospital?" Arthur went back over the scout plans.

"Yeah, Brain said he was going to try and get some walkie-talkies from the mall when they…" But before Buster could finish, said person stepped into the room, looking rather stressed.

"Speak of the devil." Arthur commented, surprised that Alan's scout ended so quickly.

"Arthur," the bear said hastily, "There are raiders in the mall, a large number of them. Looks like that random raid yesterday wasn't so random. They were trying to see why no one from here came to contact them."

"Crap!" Arthur called out, "How many?" he asked after quickly regaining his composure, he had to remain focused; the last thing he wanted now was to show signs of weakness, to inspire fear into his group. The back of his mind bugged him about not spending enough time with D.W. these past two days, but he pushed it out quickly.

"We counted ten, but we couldn't get inside, so I don't have any specific number. We do know they've started taking inventory of ammo, we saw them counting magazines out front." The Brain then pulled out a sheet of paper from Arthur's desk (he had located himself in the principal's office) and began to draw a rough schematic of the mall.

"Look, south and east are no go." He said, crossing those areas out, "Open terrain, we'll be dead in minutes if we were to attack from there. But up north, there's the swamp, if we can somehow sneak in from there, preferably at night, we can take them by surprise. There's a back entrance for merchandise. It's better guarded than the front, but if we can get open up the parking doors for suppliers, that'll give us a good foothold, especially if we can close it behind us so they can't circle around."

Arthur looked at the schematics, "We can't hole up there and wait, they probably have explosives, they'll get in eventually, and once in the mall itself there's no decent cover and they'll be packing both levels probably. If they're taking inventory, it means they're planning to attack us."

"Exactly why we should take them before they can make an organized attack, with the kids here, I don't know how defendable we can make this school." Again the back of Arthur's mind bugged him about his sister.

"Brain, there's cooking gas at your house, and at Marina's right?" He asked, referring to Brain's earlier reports for possible places to cook food.

Brain nodded, not quite seeing where this was going, Arthur nodded to himself.

"Okay, I need you to go over to the library with your team, get the exact schematics for the mall. You said you cleared out those giant bugs there, right?" Brain nodded, "Good, get those schematics and those of the school too. We need an enlightened view on this before we can make a real decision. Make it quick." Brain nodded and left hastily, passing Molly wordlessly as he exited.

"What are Brain and the others doing here?" She asked, "Aren't they on scout duty?"

"There are raiders at the mall. We're trying to figure out what to do." Buster answered slightly condescendingly, as if she should've already known that. She gave a confused look at his attitude and then turned to Arthur, remembering still her promise.

"Look, Arthur, regardless of that, I think you should talk to your sister." There we go again, the annoying voice in the back of Arthur's head from now will always carry Molly's voice unless he went and did as she said.

"You've been avoiding her, she needs you now. I know how you're feeling; I lost my family there too. But it's not her fault; you need to talk to her." She said tenderly, Buster excused himself from the room silently, stumbling on something loud outside and swearing.

The rabbit girl looked at her leader, pushing her bangs away from her eyes so he could see the seriousness in her eyes. "Please Arthur?" She asked, one hand moved to his cheek. "If James is any indication… she desperately needs you to talk to her." Her eyes watered up, "I could barely do it myself, but I know James feels better now… Our family… I won't let this break us. Don't let it break your family Arthur. You're all D.W. has left."

Arthur was silent this whole time, he sighed, taking Molly's hand off of his cheek and holding it gently with both of his hands. "Thanks for being strong Molly." He said, "I'll talk to her, I think I should talk to Sue-Ellen too. She hasn't said a word since we left the Vault." Molly nodded. "Call me when Brain gets back."

* * *

D.W. was alone inside of one of the old classrooms. She was reading an old children's book. The way she was holding it was strange; as though she wasn't really reading, but just wanted something to hide her face.

"Hey." Arthur cooed softly, sitting down in front of her. Her hands trembled but she didn't lower the book.

"Did Molly send you? I already told her, I'm fine." She replied weakly.

"We should talk." He wasn't sure how to go about this, so he left the sentence hanging.

"No." Came the sharp, yet shaky reply.

"D.W. I was there too… I saw what happened to Mom and Dad." He said. "It's okay to be sad, okay to be scared too." Arthur was surprised at how much she was trembling, and was sure Molly's talk with her aggravated her.

"No!" She yelled, throwing the book hard at Arthur, who took it in the arm. His sister's face was scrunched up in pent up tears and anger, and she charged screaming at him, pounding him with her fists. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" She screamed at him, finally stopping as her strength left her. Arthur wasn't sure whether to hug her or not, so he just let her cry on his shoulder.

"It's not fair! It's not fair… why did they have to die? Stupid Mr. Armstrong! Why did he let them open the door…." Her voice broke, and she continued sobbing into her brother's shoulder. "Arthur, please… please tell me, please…" She cried, not really managing to say what it was she wanted him to tell her.

He hugged her then, finally. "It's fine, D.W. it's fine, we're safe, and we'll make mom and dad and Kate proud." D.W. sobbed more, "It won't be fine… Arthur, look at us, we'll die out here, we're all alone. There's hardly any food, and I can't sleep… I can't sleep Arthur, because when I sleep mom and dad are alive, and it hurts so much when I wake up that I just don't want to wake up anymore." She broke from Arthur.

"It's like that with me too, D.W. but you still have me, and you still have Buster, and Molly and Brain and Emily, we're all one big family now. I swear I'll never let you be alone."

She undid her ponytail, still sniffling and crying, and gave her rubber hair-band to Arthur. "Take this, take this and promise, promise you'll always show it to me every day forever."

Arthur's eyes widened, he knew what she meant, he had to come and show her the hair-band every day, he had to stay alive every day so he could show it to her, if he died, and failed to show it to her from then on, he'd be breaking his promise to her. Though D.W. was fifteen, and much more eloquent than that, he wasn't surprised at her childish demeanor.

"I promise." He said, "Cross my heart and…." He probably should not have said that, he left the rest blank.

D.W. walked quietly out of the room, "If you break your promise, I will hate you for all time." She threatened quietly, a bit hopelessly and most of all fatigued. She was probably going to sleep; Arthur did not feel the need to go after her. He had another person to talk to anyway.

* * *

"Sue-Ellen?" He asked, going up to the school roof, 'You shouldn't be out here, if a sniper comes along…" He stopped as he saw her face. It seemed almost pulled back, gaunt looking.

He realized she must've stopped eating the day they left the vault. That would be almost five days without eating, he thought it was the moonlight at first, but it quickly became apparent that she was pale as well. Some patches of fur were missing from her face, ripped out, it seemed.

"Sue-Ellen…" Arthur put his hand around her.

"I'm sorry…" She said weakly, "I know I'm stupid, I know I should eat… I know I'm just setting us back."

"What's this all about? Yeah, you should eat, but you're not setting us back. We need you Sue-Ellen, and you're worrying us, worrying me." Arthur wondered since when he was such a talker, but disregarded that thought.

"I… I'm sorry…" Sue Ellen repeated, "What?" She asked suddenly, not Arthur, but someone else.

Arthur followed her gaze, she was looking into thin air.

"I'm sorry, no, yeah… I… I should eat, I know." Sue-Ellen repeated again. Was this shock? Or post-traumatic-stress?

"Sue-Ellen, stay with me." Arthur said, snapping his fingers, a bad move. In Sue-Ellen's mind, the echoing snap was the loud click of a locking mechanism, a huge one, rolling open the vault doors.

She held her hands to her eyes, "If I don't look, maybe they won't come." She stated blankly. Arthur looked at her, completely unsure as to how to handle this… situation. He waited too long, he failed. She was obviously barking. No, thinking that would make him truly fail her.

"I want to see a Dolio-chagi." He said, she uncovered her eyes slowly to look at him. Their gazes locked for several moments.

"Dolio-chagi? Roundhouse? We always start with Ahp-chagi." She said, "You've not come to my training lessons often, so you wouldn't know." She accused.

"I'm sorry, I should've, but I was lazy." Arthur took her accusation as a sign she was returning to some semblance of reason.

"What's it going to help now? Everyone's dead, it's all because of us." Her head sunk, she hugged her knees. "We decided to open that damn door. We couldn't just wait; we couldn't just hope the noises would go away." The cat stared ahead miserably; there was no way one talk could pull her out of this.

"Hey, I have an idea." The aardvark said, lifting his glasses up on his nose a bit. Sue-Ellen raised an eyebrow, still looking ahead with melancholy, but listening.

"The little kids need something to distract them from all of the bad stuff. I admit I haven't had much of a chance to see how they're doing. How about you teach them some Tae-Kwon-Do?" He was sure he mispronounced him, but he saw an odd smile creep on his compatriot's expression.

"Yeah, find my focus again, help them find theirs. Meditation, I also studied yoga, maybe I can integrate it too. Not that crap I did back at the vault." She muttered dreamily.

She still had issues, she wasn't quite sane, that was sure. Mood swings, shifting perception of reality, unfixed attention span, which could mean trouble.

But with letting her do something with herself, Arthur hoped to buy some time, at least until they established a safe base of operations. He sighed and turned to look at the broken cityscape.

Though sympathetic, Arthur felt detached from the others. It was like he spoke without emotion, he knew he had to bottle things up for now; he had to be the strong, unbreakable leader figure.

He had to be strong for them, but it made him feel as though he is drawing away from his friends, his family. Even Molly, whom he loved, yes, loved. He wasn't even ashamed to think it; he was in love with her beautifully creepy red eyes, with her roundish ears, her cheeky smile and badass attitude.

But he felt his role as leader was putting him on another level, pulling him apart from them.

He sighed again and scratched his head, about to say something, when his love interjected, putting her hand on his shoulder, "Brain's back."

"This is it." Brain said, showing Arthur the small crater, filled with some sort of disgusting muck like grey substance. "I took another route to the library this time, to see if it would be a likely place for the raiders to approach and I found this. Pay attention now." He said, pulling out a small, mutated rat and throwing him in. Instantly the rat began to alter, becoming bloated, changing body color, losing hair, squeaking horrifically, and eventually turning into a small stain of reddish yellow on the grey. The process was excruciatingly slow, and painful to watch, as the rat struggled against the air, begging for life, fighting hard against an enemy he could not see; his own body reaction.

Buster winced, hand over his nose, "Ugh, the smell, what is that, acid?"

"It's a bio-genetic altering agent Baxter, possibly used in the war; this explains those weird creatures in Puffer's Pond and the reservoir." Brain was referring to very aggressive, rather large crablike monsters, humanoid in most regards, but armored with a powerful exoskeleton, making them hardly vulnerable to small arms fire.

"It doesn't explain those monsters in the Vault." Arthur said sharply, "But who knows what else is hanging around."

Molly, standing back with Rattles and Slink couldn't help but cover her nose as well, "This is disgusting." She said, "What do you want us here for?"

"If we could scout out the hospital, and maybe find some of the right equipment there, I can analyze this; maybe find a way to make it useful, or even to turn it into a weapon, or some sort of defense." Brain explained, he was the intern scientist\doctor back in the vault, so Arthur didn't doubt his ability.

"How come it hasn't filtered into the soil, or dried up?" Arthur asked, though he could suspect the answer.

"It seems that animals that fall in are absorbed into it, just like that rat. I can only assume that the unnatural migrations of animals searching for a resource rich environment are feeding this thing, keeping it alive so to speak. If you look at the ground you can determine how large this small puddle used to be, like a pool. It's only gotten down to this now, though."

Arthur sighed, "Look, let's go back and review those schematics, I don't feel comfortable leaving the school unattended while the raiders are out there. When we've dealt with them, we can take a look at this."

"Do you have any ideas?" Asked Brain, Arthur smiled back at him, nodding.

"Oh, I already know what I want to do, heh, I just needed those schematics to make sure it will work."

* * *

They did not have a lot of time left, for by next morning, the bulk of the raider forces began mobilizing, determined to root out whatever took over the school. A dozen, maybe two, were heading towards the school building, some intentionally going through the ball field to attract fire, others circling around from beneath, others coming on from above.

Marina held James and Emily close to them, while Sue-Ellen was with Mei-Lin and D.W. Marina whispered silently for everyone to be quiet, and try to be still, and then all put their hands over their ears.

"Are you ready?" Arthur asked; himself, Slink, Rattles, Buster, Brain and Molly checking their weapons. They weren't professional, they didn't really know the ins and outs of their weapon, and the only know-how they had was from old instruction videos Brain used to watch in the Vault. But they were good enough, they hoped, for the task at hand.

They had to make sure the raiders wouldn't bother them again, and being outgunned and outnumbered, didn't help.

* * *

Author's notes: Yes, I apparently confused Brain with a field mouse in one of the prologue chapters, sorry about that. My mistake!

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the fanfic so far. Please leave a review and let me know what you think! (Especially if you find any grammar \ English mistakes.)

~Cursor


	5. Chapter 1 part 2

**Chapter 1**

**Part 2**

Darryl was only third in command until a few days ago, when they lost contact with the school outpost. He didn't mind, it was actually even better for him, he was now second in command after Jeff, his leader's friend, disappeared.

He liked being second in command, and should this venture into the school succeed, he would most likely be able to turn his group against the leader, assuming control. Three years is a long time to be depending on someone else's leadership, especially one like Rex. He despised his leader; he was smart, cunning, strong and even worse of all, a tough fighter. He was an ex-soldier that went entirely bonkers.

Darryl spat at the ground, his group was coming up at the school from above, they'll infiltrate through the playground.

He took note that whoever was inside the school wasn't shooting at the group coming from the baseball field, they were probably setting up an ambush, or was aware there was more than one group, and conserving ammo.

He reached the school's front doors, waiting until the group at the back door was in position, and the one positioning to enter through the side windows were ready to enter. They were twenty men, out of a group of twenty six, before that, a group of thirty four. It was due to their leader's demand that the other group holed up in the school, looking aimlessly for nothing. There was nothing of worth in the school, and the jackass Rex knew it all along. It was like he sent them to die.

"Heh," Darryl laughed, "We'll see who's going to bite it." He chuckled, kicking the doors to the school open and giving off a few rounds inside, signaling the other groups to proceed and gain entry. From familiarization, the best place to hole up would either be in the basement, or the roof. Any fool could tell they weren't on the roof, so two groups immediately headed towards the basement, the other groups slowly seizing control of the other rooms, clearing them one by one.

"Uh, Darryl." Ox called over, ox was an ox, part of his second group. He was a truly dumb bull, really. Anything he had to say could not be important. Darryl ignored his cries from above and plunged beneath to the basement, standing right outside the door, he thought he could hear noises inside, maybe a creaking of a chair?

Oh how long Darryl waited for some fresh blood! He hoped there were females, delicious young things… ripe for the picking, oh the females… Darryl licked his lips in anticipation, oh how anxious was he. "Darryl!" He heard one of the others from above call out, "Darryl you stupid son of a bitch, get up here!" Darryl growled angrily, not now, not when he was this close. He kicked open the door, the wire attached to it tearing the safety pin from a grenade emplaced on the group of gas containers, one of them was leaking. The creak he heard must've been the gas faucet turning. He took a good look around the room, noticing their positions, structural supports and foundations. Darryl's last thought was that of irritation, looks like he won't get to be alpha dog after all.

"Darryl! Someone spilled gas all over the…" Ox started, but never had a chance to finish, as the resounding explosion cut him off, the entire school collapsing on itself, burying the raiders beneath tons of stone and rubble.

* * *

Buster knew what the explosion meant, they had precious few moments until the noise died down, in that time, they had to infiltrate the back entrance of the mall, gunning down the skeleton crew guarding it.

Buster wasn't a violent person, not even back in the vault. Sure, he looked the part, with his gigantic corpus of strong, well trained muscles. But he wasn't, he liked the safety of the Vault. He liked his mother; he liked everything when it was funny, or casual. He did not like this.

He could practically feel the black rings forming under his eyes; cousin from his uncle's side was a Blanc-De-Hotot. So the black around her eyes came naturally with her fur. His however, came from exhaustion. He hasn't had a good night's sleep since they left the Vault. He couldn't close his eyes without seeing those things; those… monsters tear apart the crowd desperately trying to flee.

When Marina had slipped when escaping the Vault, she fell over a body, and right next to her, Buster could recognize his mother's blood-stained locket, limbs ripped apart, head missing, but he could still know it was her. When he'd succumb to exhaustion that was what he saw.

He gave a silent prayer to Marina, who despite being blind, was the only one who could see, or rather, the only one who cared to see his pain. She kept his spirits up, by talking about it with him. He can't have imagined how frightening it must've been, in total darkness, hearing screams, crying, vomiting, hearing those monsters roar and whatnot, the sound of flesh tearing… He shook off those thoughts, as another crept back into his mind.

_"Buster, I… well, before you go I just…" Marina said, funny how despite looking uncomfortable and embarrassed her eyes still stared vaguely at his. "Just, well… be careful?" She asked, then rubbing her temple, "I wanted to give you this, for luck." She said, handing Buster a knit four-leafed clover patch. "Keep it, and when you get back, maybe I can sew this into your suit?" She asked hopefully. Buster's ears perked up, a wide grin spreading on his face. It was the first time since they left the vault that he managed to concentrate fully on what he was doing._

_"I'd love that, Marina." He stated warmly, putting the patch in one of the magazine holsters on his Vault armor. "I'll see you soon."_

He saw Arthur give the Go command, under cover of the noise of the explosion and collapse of the nearby school. They charged through the back, easily surprising and taking down the two guards at the door. Arthur, as point man, got one in the gut, Buster was right behind him, but only managed to scrape his shoulder, luckily either Slink or Brain took a shot from behind Buster and managed to take him down.

"Inside!" Arthur ordered quietly, he and Buster dragged in the Raider corpses, closing the door after them. The Brain looked around for security cameras, none there. Molly took out a combination lock she cracked from the school, it wasn't much, but it should hold any raider reinforcements from getting in the back door for a while, she used it to bar the door, passing it through the two rings attached to the door and frame.

"Brilliant Macdonald," Brain said, "I just hope you can open it as quick if we get in trouble." He whispered. The others reloaded their weapons to full magazines, hoping their gunfire was not heard over the sound of the explosion.

"Alex, did you see that boom? Damn, you think Darryl did that?" A radio on the raider's body piped up. Arthur's group stopped and stared at it tensely.

"Alex? Yo wake up! Alex!" The radio called out, this wasn't good.

Buster signaled Arthur to move, or they would lose their surprise element, Arthur nodded and went through the door to the corridor, where a cargo elevator and a flight of stairs went up to the first and second floors. The words "Property of Rex's Raiders" were sprayed over the elevator doors.

The power still worked, the Raiders must've been maintaining the emergency generator, so when Arthur called down the elevator, it started with a loud rattle.

"What are you doing?" Rattles asked, "You'll give us away!" Arthur grinned at him; that was exactly what he was going for.

As the elevator doors opened he pulled out one of the flash bang grenades he took from the raider lieutenant at the school and casually tossed it in, sending the elevator up to the second floor, then silently, but quickly ascending the stairway, opposite it.

Unsure of what his leader had planned Buster stayed in tow, he trusted Arthur; they were still alive weren't they? Just around the bend of the last flight leading to the second floor, Arthur waited, as he heard the elevator doors open, gunfire from the raiders ambushing it, and then a loud bang.

The raiders yelled out in surprise, their confusion allowing Arthur's group to mow down both of them with automatic fire. However, their moment of triumph was short lived, as Rattles took two bullets, one in the gut, and another in the shoulder, and proceeded to collapse on the floor.

Arthur could see him, the raider leader, in a suit of leather armor, wearing a black ski-mask with a burning white skull painted on it.

Arthur fired, but the raider leader took cover, springing his own trap, a remote detonation device he planted on one of his men near Arthur's group, peppering them with fragments painfully, also shattering Arthur's glasses.

Buster was panicked now, though his injuries were only superficial, the sensation caused by them and the pain, not to mention the raider blood and gore he was drenched in caused him to lose his cool. He quickly pulled Arthur down below the railing (as the upper floor was overlooking the one beneath, creating two corridors on the sides with a large gap overlooking the first floor in the middle.)

Arthur couldn't see, blood from his forehead was blocking his view, and without his glasses, he could hardly aim. Rattles was down, Slink was providing covering fire, but Rex timed himself perfectly to advance slowly. Within few moments he will be within grenade range, meaning they would be screwed.

"Molly, do something!" Buster cried out in alarm, when a single gunshot wound was heard, said rabbit was behind Rex, gun pointed at his back.

"Already on it," She said seriously, the raider leader turned his head, how did she…? "That was a warning shot." She threatened.

But Rex wasn't done yet, a shot rang out, getting Molly straight in the shoulder, there was another raider.

"No!" Arthur called, hearing Molly's painful groan, Buster didn't wait, he charged forwards, if they managed to take Molly hostage, the entire operation would be screwed. He tackled the surprised Rex to the ground. Unfortunately, though, said coyote was an ex military specialist, even Buster wouldn't last long in a melee against his close quarters training.

It was all up to Slink now, he wasn't much of a talker, less of a fighter really, but with two of his best friends down, he had to do something. He peeked around the corner, looking for the last raider, his keen eyes spotted him, a silhouette behind some shades in an office on the other side of the gap; he could see the barrel of his hunting rifle poking out of the shattered window, trying to get a shot at Buster.

"Okay Slink," He muttered, "Hero time." He stepped lightly over Rattles' injured form, and sped towards the other side of the gap. He wasn't among the top three of the Vault track team, but he was definitely a good runner, and agile. By the time the raider, who was fixated on the fight between Buster and Rex, took note of him, he was already sprayed with automatic fire.

Rex, holding Buster down to the floor after repeatedly introducing his fist to said rabbit's nose, looked up at the noise. His backup was down, but he hasn't lost yet, he pulled out his army knife from its sheath and was about to press it to Buster's throat, when Brain, who, when the remote explosive detonated fell back down the stairs, managed to get his way back up, now aiming his pistol directly at Rex's head.

Rex growled, this was it, he'd never manage to take the barely conscious rabbit hostage now, he'd be shot point-blank before he'd manage to get the knife to his neck. A blow to the back of his head rendered him unconscious.

Molly, holding Rex's assault rifle spat out at the gap overlooking the first floor. "Your goon shot my good arm, son of a bitch." She rumbled.

"Would that be offensive to a canine?" The dazed Buster asked, as Brain was already starting to field-dress Rattles' wounds.

Molly shrugged, passing by him quickly to check on Arthur, while Slink secured Rex; he handcuffed the raider leader with a pair of cuffs hanging from his own belt, and pulled him away to the side.

"Is Rattles going to be alright?" Molly asked with concern, as brain was feverishly working on staunching the bleeding. "Argh, no good!" He said, "I need to take those bullets out now, help me get him to the food court!" He said, Arthur jumped to assist, lifting him carefully, and walking him over to one of the tables in the food court. Brain always carried a first aid pack on his vault suit, unpacking it, he pulled out the equipment he needed, a pair of tweezers, bandages and a folding scalpel. Rattles was losing consciousness.

"Molly, go, keep him awake." Brain ordered calmly, "Talk to him, do anything, make sure he doesn't black out."

The red-eyed rabbit did as she was told, moving to Rattles' head, she said "Hey,"

"Hey," He grunted back, "Sorry, kind of hurting here, y'know?"

"Suck it up, boy; you're a tough customer, aren't you?" she answered back, he managed a chuckle.

"Hey, you know what, what they should call us after this?" He said, coughing, blood. Molly tilted his head sideways, so it would not choke him.

"They should… totally call us Molly's Marauders." He said, she tugged on his ear painfully. "Ow! Why?"

"If you're already licking my boots, you mind cleaning up the sole, too? I think I stepped on some of your bull-crap back there." She said sternly.

"Hah, don't worry Molly, I ain' kissing that hot ass of yours, I'm juss being honess." He mumbled, then groaned in agony as Brain began pulling out the first bullet from his gut, "Hold him down, I'm taking it out." Rattles struggled, but was held down firmly by Molly and Arthur.

"God, agh!" Rattles cried, "Stop it, I can't, I can't! Stop!" He cried.

"You little girl, if you die I'm taking your jacket, no way I'll let a wuss like that be a Tough Customer." Molly provoked him.

"Go to Hell! No way you're taking my jacket, I co-founded this gang!" He said, biting his lower lip as Alan finally managed to remove the bullet in his gut. "The one that hit the shoulder went clean through." He said after a small inspection.

Brain quickly applied antiseptics to the wounds and pulled out a stimpack from his first aid pack. Stimpacks were the height of military medical technology, stimulating the cellular regeneration to a near instant healing process. It could only go so much however, so to treat any true injuries, more than one would have had to be applied, it was also no good against crippled limbs or damaged nerve organs.

Injecting the stimpack into Rattles' Pip Boy's Stimport wasn't easy, since Rattles was still thrashing around. Brain finally managed to inject it eventually, and slowly, Rattles began to calm down. Brain moved to bandage his wounds, asking Arthur to see how Buster was doing. He also Noted that Rattles was probably going to make it, though he will be off duty for a time, depending on the effectiveness of the stimpack.

Arthur however, was looking at Molly's blood-soaked arm. "You're hurt." He said.

"No crap." She answered sardonically, "It's a flesh wound, idiot didn't even hit an artery, at least it went clean through, hah, no painful bullet extraction for Molly!"

Arthur couldn't see Molly that well, he was about to comment about her carelessness, staying out in the open like that, but remembered that he had to be strong and inspiring. "Have Brain take a look at that." He finally said, "Good job Molly, I never even saw you splitting up from us."

Molly chuckled, "You kids used to hang out in the Sugar Bowl, we used to hang out here. I know all the ins and outs." She gave Arthur a genuine smile, obviously happy he thought she did well. She felt an urgent need to kiss him, but she didn't feel like frenching any raider guts, so she resolved to wait for him to clean up.

Arthur went over slowly to where Buster was still lying down, and sat down next to him. "Buster?" He asked.

"Head hurts." The rabbit replied, "At least he didn't break my nose."

"We got him, don't worry." Arthur pulled Buster to a sitting position, smiling at his bloody face.

"Hah, what are you smiling at?" He asked mockingly, "You're not too up and about yourself."

The two shared laughter, allowing relief to take over adrenaline, and only then realizing how much of a headache they had.


	6. Chapter 1 part 3

**Chapter 1**

**Part 3**

It was quiet, very quiet, D.W. James and Emily were crowded together, Mei-Lin sticking to Sue-Ellen and Marina's side. They were hiding in Marina's house again, not that far from school, but not close enough to be in any danger. Arthur's plan had worked, and the raiders took the bait.

Marina sighed, she hoped Arthur's group was successful, and also, to her shame, that the school finished off all of the raiders. She was sensitive about human life, but if any survived and were to find her and the children… she didn't think Sue-Ellen's gun would be any good in such a case. Not that she really thought Sue-Ellen should have been given a gun in her state anyway.

James spoke quietly, "Do you think the others are okay?" He asked.

"I hope so," Emily said, D.W. was smiling contently.

"They're alright, Arthur's with them." She said, "Arthur still has to comeback and show me my hair-band, he won't let himself die, he won't break his promise." Emily smiled weakly; glad D.W. was finally a bit cheerful, if a bit insane, but frankly, what was sane out here? Emily herself was dealing with the crisis within herself. But she realized that letting what happened take over her would not be what her family would want for her. She had to be reliable, in case D.W. or James would be having serious issues, and she knew they did.

She wanted to be there for them, they were her best friends, and she couldn't let herself down from the high standard they expected of her.

She took a deep breath, before forcing a smile and saying, "You're probably right, D.W."

"Obviously I am." D.W. retorted, highly reminiscent of her behavior before the vault. James breathed easier, he nodded vigorously.

"There's no way that those numb-skulled raiders are going to out think Arthur and Molly, they're too smart." The teen rabbit tapped his head to emphasize the point.

"Let's make a pact," the aardvark of the three suddenly said, "We'll be like them, like Arthur, Buster, Brain and Molly; we'll watch each others' backs, be the future heroes that everyone will look up to." The others nodded in agreement, even though in truth none of them could see the day coming. Mei-Lin joined them, "Me too." She said, "I want to join too!"

"Sorry Mei-Lin, no Chinese allowed, your people are to blame for all of this." James said, shaking his head.

"James!" Marina gasped, "I'll not have you talk like that!" But even her tone sensitive ears could not hear past James' acting.

"Haha," He laughed, "I'm kidding, of course she can join!" He said warmly, scooping her into a hug. "I'm not prejudiced against Chinese, only against monsters. And raiders too, yeah." Mei-Lin smiled widely, content at being hugged close. She has lost her best friend in Kate Read, and her brother as well as her parents to the monsters in the Vault. A fuzzy orange feeling started blooming inside of her.

Yes, Mei Lin didn't use names for emotions, but color. Often reddish-brown would be anger or hate, yellow contentment, pink was safety and comfort, dark grey was sadness, and most mysterious of all was the illusive bluish-purple, which would pop in now and then, leaving Mei-Lin thoroughly confused.

"I feel orange." She whispered, unfortunately for her, none of the group knew her well enough to understand what it meant. A cyan feeling rushed into her as she felt an urge to see Kate again. Kate would understand.

Sue-Ellen stood up and began pacing, "I'm thinking of a lesson plan, Marina." She said, "I was wondering, you think high kicks are good for the first lesson?"

Marina, unaware of Arthur's talk with Sue-Ellen suspected the cat girl was imagining she was back in the Vault, so to diffuse a potentially explosive situation, she said, "I think you should start with what is easiest. From my Yoga with…" she hesitated, "With Prunella, I know that starting with the hard stuff is bad for your development, it might cause your students to give up early."

"You're right, well, I'll have to think it over, Ugh, when are they coming back? If they don't hurry back we'll get hungry … might hear our stomachs rumbling." Marina was going to ask who, but decided against it, mainly because she thought she probably didn't want to hear the answer. Fern, Fern was good friends with Sue, maybe even best friends? Marina wasn't really that socially connected in the Vault.

She didn't know who died in the monster attack, no one did, only bits and pieces, she knew that Binky was the first to go, probably the rest of the security team next. Arthur's mom, dad and sister were killed too. She remembered tripping on a body; she shivered as she remembered the slimy, fleshy feeling, the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. She stuck out her tongue and licked the back of her hand to wipe the taste off; she preferred the taste of dirt.

* * *

It would be hours before Slink would finally show up to escort them to the mall, saying the operation was a great success, and that there was only one person seriously injured. As before, Arthur made sure to strip and throw out the bodies to burn before sending Slink to bring the kids. He was rather saddened by the presence of a female body this time, a young female, probably a year or two younger than him. He had Molly strip and dispose of it out of respect to her privacy, to his girlfriend's dismay.

The mall was now locked down, steel gates dropping down on the main entrance to block out any intruder. The only way left for anyone to infiltrate was through the roof skylight, but climbing there was hard, and their base was positioned on the second floor anyway, so it was deemed a point of interest, and nothing more.

"These look horrible." Molly complained, "You look like a dork."

"Gee, thanks." Arthur snapped back, then trying another pair he found in an optics shop, luckily there was an entire store room in the back, filled with glasses, most useless, but he managed to find a small box with plenty of glasses in his size.

"Those look nice, smooth like." She commented, rectangular glasses, steel wire-frame, nothing too elaborate. Arthur decided on them.

"Now let's go, we should probably wake up our prisoner." As he began to walk out, he heard Brain call out, "Hey Arthur! They have people in here!" Arthur's eyes widened and he quickly descended the stairs, Molly in tow, to watch Brain leading a row of people out to the center, decently dressed and clean, but otherwise shaken.

The group was comprised of two young male dogs, a young female rabbit, a young female cat and lamb, the oldest of the group seemed only a year or two older than Arthur himself.

The female rabbit spoke first, "Look, please don't hurt us, we'll leave and never bother you again." The rabbit said quickly, she was obviously uncomfortable with the change of power; preferring to deal with Rex, whom she already knew than this new, potentially dangerous person.

Arthur examined her before speaking, she had platinum blonde hair, a long fringe on one side of her face, the rest of the hair was gathered in a high ponytail, her bluish-grey eyes were slightly dull, but still had much sparkle and fight in them, he also noticed the distinct black rings around them.

"We're not going to hurt you." Arthur said, "We're going to free you. If you want to leave, you may. But know that you are welcome to stay with us, as equals."

The captured prisoners looked at him skeptically, as Brain began unlocking their cuffs slowly with a key he found on Rex. Still disbelieving, the blonde rabbit girl stepped forwards.

"Thank you for your kindness." She said, "My name is Angelique, these are Jack, Horace," She gestured at the two dogs, both sporting dull brown fur, and of the same breed, brothers, probably, "And these are Helen and Elsa." She gestured at the lamb and cat. "We'd love for a safe place to stay, if you'd accept us."

"We've been wondering the wastes for a while with a caravan. These guys ambushed us, and we were captured, the others didn't make it." She explained.

"Okay, Brain will check you out, I want to know their full medical state Brain, blood type, everything." Brain nodded, "Then I want you to get them something to eat and drink." He then turned to Molly, "Molly, later I want you to get them some clothes, I'm assigning the dogs as Tough Customers, so make sure they're up to your standards."

"Wait," Angelique said, "What's your name?" she asked, the aardvark looked back at her.

"Arthur." He said, she seemed curious for a moment, be he had walked away already with Molly; they still needed to interrogate their newly captured prisoner.

Molly fiddled with her bandages, "Ugh, I don't get why I need these, Brain got me a stimpack, and it's probably almost healed by now." Arthur shook his head.

"Don't play around with those," He said off-handedly as they climbed up the stairs, Molly felt the urge to kiss him again, luckily, this time his face was clean of any raider remains, though his clothes were now uncomfortable with dried blood.

She leaned forwards and he placed his finger on her lips, "Smooches later." She seemed disappointed, and scowled at him. "I want to go in clear headed to interrogate Rex." He said, pecking her on the cheek instead. "Kay?"

She shook her head, and flicked his nose painfully, to which he protested heartily. A few moments later, they were in the security office, where Buster was watching the now tied and cuffed yet still unconscious raider leader, Rex.

Arthur leaned forwards, slowly removing the ski mask, tossing it aside, and revealing him to be a young, handsome canine.

"Whoa," Molly exclaimed, "He's cute." Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"No way, this guy looks no older than twenty five!" Buster said.

"I joined the Remnant Army at seventeen." Rex replied, causing the people in the room to jump.

"So what're you going to do with me? Kill me? Sell me?" He asked.

"You almost killed our friend; you should feel lucky we haven't killed you already." Molly stated coldly.

"As I recall it was you who killed off all of my people." The calm retort came, "You attacked the school and killed my friend Jeff."

"You attacked us first!" Arthur accused, pointing at him with his left hand, "We were only looking for a place to rest, we walked all the way from…"

"A vault," The canine said, staring at Arthur's Pip Boy.

"You know about the Vault?" Arthur asked, the canine nodded, sighing.

"When you see armed people these days, you shoot, and you pray they you get them before they get you. They mistook you for another group of raiders." He explained.

"Your raiders had slaves, they've killed people, I've seen the bodies at the school." Arthur said.

"They just wanted to survive, to live and perhaps not have to worry about others raiding and killing them. We were trying to get this town to be safe; obviously we did not do a good job."

"What? You call slavery safe? We met your prisoners!" Molly threw the allegation in his face, but the raider leader did not as much as flinch.

"I didn't let them touch those people. Never abuse them; I kept them in a better condition than my own men. Yes, we were going to sell them to slavery, but for them, slavery means they'll be protected and safe, while we had nowhere near enough resources to ensure their safety. I could sell a slave for four times as much as I can sell my weapon." Molly was about to argue back, but Arthur held up his hand for silence.

"You said Remnant Army, you were a soldier?" He asked.

"I was a captain, still am, probably." Rex answered sharply.

"You have military training then?" Buster didn't like where Arthur was going with this.

"Yes, training which I was trying to use to keep my people alive. They'd have mellowed out eventually. They were just people, forced to leave everything behind, they'd have settled down." He insisted.

Arthur was silent for several long moments; all were staring at him quietly.

"Can you pass on your training to us?" He asked at last, "Help us prepare better defenses? Give us the knowledge we need to survive out here? I'm willing to trade your freedom for it."

"Arthur no!" Both Molly and Buster said at once, Arthur shushed them.

"If you have something to say to me, wait until we're done here, and talk to me alone." Arthur snapped at them, looking at the canine again, "So what do you say Rex? Help us in exchange for your freedom?"

"There's no point in staying a prisoner," Rex started, pausing, "And if you are Vault dwellers, well, I guess I can probably trust you more than those wastelanders I've been trying to lead so far." He looked down, he obviously was aware of who he was commanding, but he was deluding himself with hope he could help them change.

"If you liked them as much as you say, jackal boy." Buster said quietly, through clenched teeth, "Then why did you plant an explosive device on one of them?" An interesting point Arthur didn't think about, he looked at the coyote for a response.

"I'm a coyote," He corrected the rabbit, "and I did not expect your attack to be that well organized, we expected you to stay in the elevator, the bomb was supposed to be thrown inside, in case you survived the initial ambush." He answered, then sighing. "I have to admit, you surprised me. We never expected you to blow up the school, much less use that as a cover for your attack. We thought we were dealing with simple raiders." He scowled at that, "No, _I_ thought I was dealing with simple raiders."

"So you'll help us then?" Arthur said, "I can trust you?"

"You're an intelligent leader, sir, and you bested me." Rex answered, "I won't forget that." Oddly enough, that last bit sounded nothing like a threat, but rather a courteous display of respect.

"If your friend is badly injured, there's a secret cache of Stimpacks inside one of the mannequins in the Mademoiselle clothing store, the one leaning against the back wall." The coyote pointed out.

"He'll be fine, but we could use that, thank you. I hope you understand if I do not release you for now." Arthur said, getting a chair for him, "I need to run this by my people first, I need them to agree." The coyote nodded respectfully.

"Arthur," Molly whispered, but the aardvark simply gestured outside. Buster joined them outside of the office.

"I hate to agree with her, Arthur, but there's no way you're letting that freak out." He said matter-of-factly, Arthur didn't like his tone.

Molly rolled her eyes, "I'm down with Overbite, Arthur, that guy nearly killed us."

"Nearly," the aardvark answered, "I think we need him more than we need to get rid of him. He's ex-military, he kicked Buster's ass! I mean, seriously."

"I could kick Buster's ass any day!" Molly declared harshly.

"I don't doubt that, actually." Buster agreed, "She's one macho gorilla."

"He single handedly handed our asses to us, unaware of our number, positions, disposition and armaments. We need better training if we want to survive, you're still my security chief, Molly, just let him be your advisor, okay? Here, you know what, he won't ever be allowed out of your sight, and if you see him do anything suspicious, you're welcome to cripple, kill, or incapacitate him." Arthur offered.

Both of his rabbit companions were unsure, so Arthur called up his third limb, Brain.

"How's Rattles?" He asked, as the bear approached.

"Much better." Alan replied, "The stimpack did its work marvelously, if he rests for a bit, he'll be fine." Molly let out a sigh of relief.

"Look, we're trying to decide what to do with old Rex there…"

"Arthur wants to let him join us; he wants him to train us with weapons." Buster explained angrily, "I think that idea is a major mistake."

"Well Baxter, I'm sadly going to have to agree with Arthur on this. Regardless of whether or not we trust him, without proper survival training, we won't last long. We don't know how to scavenge, or where, nor do we know how to maintain our weapons. Besides, safety in numbers is our best shot at survival." Brain countered simply.

"What? He was trying to kill us!" Buster argued, "He beat the living heck out of me, and shot Rattles!"

Brain shook his head, "From his point of view, we were the attackers. As far as he was concerned, he was just defending himself."

"Ugh! Brain why do you always have to be right? Why can't you… ugh!" Buster exclaimed his frustration.

"I'm not always right, Baxter." Brain responded with just as much frustration, "You're just always wrong."

"Stop calling me Baxter! My name is Buster! B, U, S, T, E, R!" Buster yelled, taking a threatening step forwards.

"I'm surprised you actually managed to spell it out!" Brain responded, not backing down. Molly hurried to step between them.

"Come on guys, cut the crap." She said, to no avail, the situation seemed about to explode, when the sound of laughter erupted suddenly, causing all to look towards their esteemed leader.

"What're you laughing at?" Buster asked.

"You two are such goofballs, you expect me to take both of your opinions seriously and then you bicker like little children?" He asked, still smiling.

Buster's mouth shut quickly, and he shifted uncomfortably, ears drooping. "Sorry Arthur, I guess I really was out of hand…" Brain nodded, silent after having been put in place.

Arthur approached the both of them and put his hands on their shoulder, "Come on guys, you're my top guns, I know it's hard, but we can't let this get to us, we've got to look out for the kids, for each other. We're the ones everyone looks up to, let's try and set an example." Both smiled and nodded, mumbling their consensus.

Molly smirked at her boyfriend; he defused the situation easily and with almost unthinkable simplicity. "Alright, Arthur," She said, "I'll trust you on this one, I'll give Rex a chance."

The aardvark looked to Buster; he wanted his approval as well. The rabbit sighed, "You're the man, Arthur, if you think it's the way to go, I'm with you."

Arthur slapped his back playfully, causing him to wince. "Thanks bro, right, Molly, go check on the new guys, Buster, get to the roof; see if Slink and the others are close. Brain, there's a cache of Stimpacks in a mannequin leaning on the far wall in Mademoiselle, make sure they're up to spec and keep them with you. I'll have another word or two with Rex back there." The group nodded, mumbling their acknowledgements before walking off.

Arthur sighed, returning inside the security office, pulling out a key. "Rex, I think we have a deal."


	7. Chapter 2

It was the third day of Rex's training regime, and the day that marked a week and a half since we left the Vault. Rex was kept still as much more of a prisoner than an ally, he was not allowed to walk anywhere on his own, even to the bathroom. All weapons he demonstrated and taught us about were unloaded, and he was kept pretty much isolated from the rest.

I found him to be remarkably out of the ordinary, though I am probably the only one who held conversation with him. The entire time, he seemed to know a lot about what was going on, and he never had questions. In the short span of three days I've managed to speak with him much, and never once did he phrase a simple question, yet I still felt I was giving him all the answers.

He explained many things to me, mainly about food and water sources, as apparently even the water bottles were not safe from a minor amount of radiation. So he taught me how to purify water with things as simple as glass pitchers, a pressure cooker, several tubes and a Radaway. With one kit of those we could create up to fifteen liters of fresh water at a time. Those things in the reservoir and Puffer's Pond, the crab-like mutations we were calling "Snappers" so far, were apparently named "Mirelurks" and were common throughout the region; apparently as far as food goes, they were mostly safe, having a very low amount of radiation in them, and they were very nourishing. We resolved to go on a hunting trip soon, to try and land us maybe one or two of them.

Buster had hardly shown any interest to the news of there being a new rabbit in the group, he had been choosing the loneliest guard spots and chores so far, and I felt he was slowly distancing himself from the rest of us. He did not even bother to come and meet the new joiners, or to join Rex's weapons training. Something was on his mind. His fights with Molly have also worsened, as she is in charge of security, she tries to keep a healthy rotation of the guards. I told her the other day that she had best resolve this issue he has with her before I get involved. I just couldn't ignore this anymore.

I probably need to stop using past tense all of the time when writing this, it gets confusing.

* * *

"Right," Rex said loudly, "Today's most important lesson." He said, taking his empty rifle and pulling back the loading handle, suddenly slipping in a single bullet and raising his weapon to face the sky, then firing it off towards the horizon. Molly gasped and moved to draw her pistol, but I held her hand. "Ammunition control; Slink, you've just been taken hostage by a hostile element, because you left your ammo scattered around." He said, quickly disarming the weapon.

"You saw it, with this one bullet, I could have killed any of you, or taken anyone hostage." Rex declared, "Never leave your ammo scattered around, keep it organized in a place you can control." As he moved on to the standard drills, practicing stance, positioning and aiming, Arthur stepped aside. He himself was no good with a rifle, he could barely aim properly, since he was right handed, but his aiming eye was his left.

Rex claimed that this was invaluable in use of small fire-arms such as pistols, as it helped him determine range and position better. However, in any two-handed weapon, holding the heavy rifle with his weak arm was not an advantage, and greatly affected his aiming, until such time where he could achieve an acceptable level of ambidexterity.

Arthur decided to stay with pistols for now, and though he practiced riflery by himself, he kept to the side when others practiced. This time, Molly joined him. "I was pretty sure I'd have to gun him down this time." She said, "Why does he insist on being unpredictable?"

"Because you don't trust him, it's his way of keeping you alert." Arthur replied, a smile playing on the corner of his mouth. "We've been improving though; I think we should take him with us to the hospital."

"You must be going cra… what the?" Molly started, apparently a fight was breaking out on the training field, one of the dog brothers accidentally hit Slink, causing a loud yell about between the two. She moved to interfere, but was held back by Arthur.

"Let's see Rex handle this." She stopped, then leaned back on the wall, nodding.

"What's this?" Rex asked standing next to the two, not between them. "Any good reason for disrupting this training session?" Molly could tell that the rabbit girl, Angelique was looking concernedly over at the three.

"That idiot hit me with his rifle." Slink said, "I told him to watch it."

"Ey, scallywag I don't answer to yeh." The canine responded equally, in what would be known as the dog brothers' famous undeterminable accent.

"So, what're you going to do, just stand about yelling like idiots? Go on, have a row." Rex said, Molly's ear twitched, did he just…?

Slink and the dog looked at him, "What?"

"Go on, a fight, loser must leave today's session and clean the lavatories for one week." Slink seemed unsure, but the dog was confident.

"I'm in, how's about ye, scallywag? Ye afraid of little ol' Jack?" Slink looked at him, eyes darting around at the others, then stopping on Molly, she gave him a nod.

"Right," Slink said, cracking his knuckles, "Time to teach the newcomer who's boss around these parts." He said.

"I wasn't meaning you'd fight against each other." Rex said, chuckling, "No, you both disrupted **my** session; you both get to fight me."

Now the two definitely looked unsure, but after another nod from Molly, and one from Angelique, they charged at the coyote, who swiftly deflected Slink's blow, tripping him to the ground and proceeding with a roundhouse to the dog's chest, sending the latter on his back.

"That was pretty easy." He commented, "Where did you learn how to fight? Girl's boarding school?"

Slink and Jack both growled and charged again, this time more carefully, however both blows were blocked, and Slink received a nasty elbow to the face, while Jack was tripped over as he tried to punch, falling flat on his face.

"Someone call the gardener, it looks like we have a face-plant." Rex taunted, Arthur chuckled at that, and when Molly looked he shrugged.

"What? It was funny."

"Okay time out!" Slink called, Rex shrugged. As Jack rose back to his feet, the tan rabbit laid out his plan. "We attack at once," he whispered, "He can't defend himself from both directions at the same time. The dog nodded, and they got into position, charging at once from opposite directions, a fatal mistake. Slink charged in, delivering a fierce punch, while Jack sent a furious straight kick. A simple deflection and sidestep threw Slink's punch straight into Jack's groin.

"Oops! Jack was hit instead of Rex!" James commented; while it was decided the children were going to start training at a later time, after they adjusted, they were still allowed to watch the others, so James, Emily, D.W. and Mei-Lin were sitting along with Marina and Sue Ellen, James was describing the fight to the blind rabbit.

Jack fell to the floor with a groan, "Argh, me krakens!"

As Rex turned to Slink to finish him off the tan rabbit quickly backed off, "I surrender, I surrender!" He called, retreating. "Ye lil' girl!" Horace, Jack's brother yelled at him.

"You want a round too?" Rex asked, shutting Horace up immediately.

Rex chuckled, "Good, anyone else wants to disrupt this training session?"

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Sue Ellen asked, stepping forwards.

"A new challenger approaches!" James said enthusiastically, as Horace and Slink helped Jack back to his feet.

"The man's a beast," Jack groaned, Slink nodded, helping him up, "We'll get 'im yet, don't yeh doubt it scallywag.."

"Right, well if you don't mind me explaining a bit, for the edification of our friends here – observation is key. Pronounced leg muscles, stable stance, keeps herself balanced and leveled when she walks, instead of that usual sway females are famous for. I'd wager she's been practicing kicking disciplines, meaning that in unarmed combat, a short range sixty degree angle is best for approach. But that's just textbook stuff. When faced with a trained unarmed or melee weapon opponent, your best bet is to keep your distance and try to outmaneuver them." Rex explained shortly, "Find a rock, patch of dirt, or anything else you can throw at them for distraction." He bowed slightly to her as she stood in front of him, she bowed back gracefully.

Now Arthur was mildly concerned, he didn't know how this fight might end, with Sue-Ellen being as disturbed as she was. They took their battle stances and sized each other up. Others stood back to watch, Molly looked at Arthur, looking for direction, but he did not respond, fixated on the impending fight.

Sue Ellen struck first with a snap kick, blocked, Rex used the opening to try and slip a jab, but she elegantly swerved out of the way, delivering a backwards circle kick, which was deflected. Arthur was no expert, but it was obvious she was testing his reactions, trying to get a sense of his style. He was patient, yet springy, like a coiled viper, he would strike suddenly and return to the defensive just as swiftly. Sue Ellen on the other hand was more calculated, quickly determining the weakest defense and attempting to strike there. This precise offensive would do her well against less experienced fighters.

The fight flowed on like a gentle ballet, neither of them managing to score a hit past the others' defenses. Kicks, punches, swerves, feints, ducks, it was almost like watching the same motion continued through two people at the same time, it was breathtaking.

Slowly it began building up speed, and ferocity, as both began to push harder, each wanting to land a hit. Rex landed one first, a straight gut punch, causing female cat to double over, then retreat slightly. Something was odd about her expression though, Arthur couldn't place his finger on it.

She feinted another kick, and moved in with a punch, scraping Rex's shoulder, and receiving an equally ferocious kick to her side, nearly sending her tumbling. She took it like a man though, and carried on, managing a few small hits at Rex before being elbowed in the face. A trickle of blood went down from her nose.

"Okay, I think that's enou…" Rex started, but before he could finish she charged again, but this time, the look in his eyes changed, she was no longer a challenge, she was now a threat. Stone cold, he quickly diverted her assault and kneed her back painfully, dropping her to her knees so that he was kneeling on her heels with one leg, the other on the ground at a ninety degree angle for balance. He had her head pulled back and held firmly in place by his arm, while the other grasped at her scalp. Everyone looked at Arthur, who himself was not sure what Rex was going to do.

Rex, surprising even Arthur, only whispered something silently to her, while looking still into her eyes. For a moment, it seemed kind of strangely romantic, as though he was about to kiss her. She nodded and he ruffled her hair a bit, before letting her go and standing up.

"Right, lesson's over, adults, tomorrow evening's unarmed training, kids, you go to Sue-Ellen for that in the morning." He announced. Sue Ellen simply walked off silently, a pondering look on her face. The rest scattered while muttering aloud about what they had just seen.

Arthur and Molly were both relieved, he was ashamed to admit it, but even with his trust in Rex, the aardvark really thought the coyote might snap Sue Ellen's neck that time. His reaction was entirely different from the battle before, it was faster than thought or instinct; he only prayed he'd never have to look into those cold eyes as an enemy.

Molly clicked her tongue, Buster was absent again, she had hoped he'd arrive by the end of the lesson, but he didn't. She considered the situation with Rex and Sue-Ellen defused, and went off to find the heavily muscled rabbit, it was time she talked with him seriously.

"Quite a show you put up there Romeo; thought you'd be going for a French for sure." Arthur commented at Rex.

"She's a cute girl, but no." The coyote replied simply, not showing the least bit sign of being amused.

"What did you say to her?" The aardvark asked, but the coyote shook his head.

"Nothing that is relevant to this conversation." In other words, what he said was meant for her ears alone.

The two were silent for several moments, the sun was partially hidden by a cloud, and sunlight danced on the once beautiful streets of Elwood City.

"It was lucky that the bombs were aimed at Crown City, and not here." Arthur said, "We can still save the city, in time." Rex was silent.

"We'll be going to sweep the hospital tomorrow, any tips?" The Aardvark asked finally.

"Yes, take me with you." The coyote said, his tone completely normal and idle, as though he was suggesting an umbrella against the rain. Arthur was about to say that it might be a problem when suddenly Helen hurried out.

"Arthur, your friends are causing quite a ruckus downstairs, they look like they might fight soon." She informed.

Arthur and Rex looked at each other before quickly following the sheep down, where Molly and Buster were screaming at each other full force, Brain attempting to calm the two down futilely.

"What the hell is your problem meat-bag?" Molly shouted at him, "Every single time I talk, walk, or even breathe next to you, you give me attitude. I'm not going to put up with that much longer!"

"What's going on…?" Arthur started, but was cut off by Buster.

"You really want to know my problem Molly? My problem is that unlike everyone else in the vault, I never, _**ever**_, forgot about George."

"Buster!" Brain called, he had crossed the line.

Molly silenced. The female rabbit was visibly shaking with emotion and Arthur was worried she might actually punch Buster.

"You know what Buster? Go to hell!" She yelled, storming off, Arthur caught a glimpse of her hand moving to wipe her eyes right before she left through the fire escape.

"That's it," Arthur said to Rex, as Buster stormed off in the other direction. "They've gone too far."

"I knew a George once," Rex said calmly, "Probably has nothing to do with this case though."

"George was one of our friends, back when we were kids…" Arthur said, "Molly used to be kind of a bully back then. She was nice sometimes, but they would pick on George all the time, he was their favorite past-time. Until one day, well, she probably just pushed him too far, because he ran away from home. His parents were out all over town to look for him." Arthur said, Rex looked at him silently.

"That was the day the bombs fell." He ventured his assumption.

"Neither George nor any member of his family made it into the Vault before it was sealed. Even though a lot of people didn't make it in time, Molly's been blaming herself for it ever since."

"Brain!" The aardvark yelled at the bear, "Get those two idiots in my office, now." Brain seemed a bit concerned, before deciding to go after Buster first.

"Helen, take Rex to his room." Arthur ordered the sheep, who gave a small, surprised hiccough and tried to comment. Arthur however left the two standing there, walking decidedly to his office.

"Before you think anything about leaving a wolf with a sheep, I'll have you know I'm actually a coyote." Rex said casually, causing Helen to chuckle nervously.

* * *

"Yeah, can I help you?" Buster asked as Brain approached, "Or are you here to tell me what a jerk I am, huh?" The rabbit asked, clenching his fist. He was inside the side corridors the cleaning crew would use when the mall was active.

"Uh, actually Buster, Arthur asked me to call you to his office." The bear responded, and Buster growled, "Can't you people leave me alone?" He called out, and bumped harshly into brain as he walked past him, knocking the much smaller bear to the floor.

Brain was in no shape to fight Buster, and he didn't think it would be wise to do so in Buster's current state anyway, so he simply went after Molly, though he was dreading speaking to her much more.

This was not good, obviously Buster was facing a serious fall, and Brain felt helpless to do anything. If Buster wouldn't talk to anyone, there was nothing anyone could do, and even though Brain was pretty headstrong, he knew that trying to interfere might cause much more damage than good. Though he rarely admitted it even to himself, Buster was one of his best friends, and seeing him like this was terrible.

He found Molly a short while later, sitting on the roof, in Buster's usual spot, on the single, wobbly chair they had placed there for the sentry. He noticed Angelique was still on the roof, he hadn't seen her inside; she must've stayed up there the entire time, as she was napping against the solar boiler, enjoying the gentle noon breeze.

"Hey, Macdonald," Brain said softly, Molly didn't look at him; she was staring off into the distance. The bear's heartstrings pulled when he noticed the sun glistening off several tears on her cheeks.

"It's not fair Brain, I do miss George…" She said, "I didn't mean to do it…" Her voice was low and raspy, as she was fighting against choking tears. "I tried to go out and look for him, but my dad pulled me to the vault."

Brain patted her on the back, "No one blames you for it, Molly." The rabbit, though touched that Brain used her first name, a rare treat, was thoroughly unconvinced.

"Not a big relief having just been blamed for it, you know." She said with much frustration.

"Buster's just projecting his stress on you, focusing it on that stupid detail. Obviously what happened in the Vault, and since has caused him, like all of us, some mental instability."

Molly curled up, hugging her knees to her chest, the chair she was sitting about creaking ominously. "My dad went back to drinking." She said.

"That's a pretty anachronistic comment." Brain commented, a bit tactlessly.

"The night before what happened with George," Molly clarified, "He got home drunk, slapped the hell out of my mom, I was so sure she would be his second divorcee. I couldn't stop crying all night."

Brain was very uncomfortable, he wasn't the best when it came to social challenges, and he never heard someone spill their heart out this way.

"I just took it out on him…"

"Arthur wanted me to get you to his office." The bear interrupted, and wordlessly his rabbit friend stood. He knew right then that he had made a mistake, his discomfort made him act selfishly, when all Molly needed was an ear.

"I hope he's not mad." She said just as she closed the roof door behind her, leaving Brain as the sentry for now. The bear sat down on the chair and balanced himself as the chair seemed to wobble backwards, she must have bent it when she put her weight on its already weary frame. He looked into the horizon and knew he probably would never hear the end of the story Molly needed to tell so bad.

* * *

_"Ugh, they never let up! How am I supposed to do all of this homework by tomorrow!" Buster asked, throwing his hands in the air theatrically._

_"I finished those in recess." Brain commented, they were just leaving school and were hanging in front of the bike parking out front, everything around them was alive, moving, people, friends. _

_"Eh." Buster shrugged, "I just want some time to finish that puzzle I've been working on." _

_"Since when do you do puzzles?" Arthur asked, having heard about this for the first time._

_"I started doing that when there were those black-outs." The rabbit replied, Sue-Ellen, also with them, gave a nod of understanding. During the first months of that year, there were many black outs throughout Elwood City, caused by some government Facility built near the power plant, where the old military base was. _

_"My dad said they were building another Vault there, too." Sue-Ellen said, "He's been there a few times."_

_Arthur was about to ask something, when suddenly someone knocked into him, dropping him to the ground, and then speeding off, it was George._

_"No George, wait! I didn't mean…" They heard shortly after, as a breathless Molly appeared, a large bruise on her face. _

_Buster, helping Arthur up, immediately asked, "What did you do, Molly?" not without a certain measure of aggressiveness. _

_Molly didn't answer, she just went off after George._

_"She looks a mess." Brain commented, "Do you think George did that?" _

_

* * *

_

"Yo, Brainiac is it?" A voice startled Alan, causing him to collapse backwards, finally putting the wobbly chair out of its misery.

"Oops, sorry, you alright?" Angelique asked, helping him up, "You dozed off."

Brain stuttered something incomprehensibly, Angelique tilted her head with puzzlement. "Yeah… You want me to take over for a bit?"

Brain nodded, feeling fortunate that he was only asleep for several minutes.

* * *

"You called?" Buster asked, entering heavily through the doors, late even though he was the first of the two told about the summons. When he saw Molly sitting there, he huffed angrily and stood at the far end of the room.

"I've made a decision, neither of you are coming with me to the hospital tomorrow." Arthur said calmly.

"What?" Molly asked, while Buster just huffed again.

"I'm taking Rex, Horace and Brain instead." At this point both rabbits were now standing, Molly angrily slamming her hands on the table and leaning forwards.

"What?" They both asked, outraged, and then both started yelling at him incomprehensibly.

"Shut up." Arthur said, he didn't raise his voice, but somehow, both rabbits were silenced.

"You can't take Rex with you! He'll kill you the first chance he gets!" Molly said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, but right now, I feel I can trust him more than you two. You might end up shooting each other right then and there. So until you two kiss and make up, you're off active duty."

Buster stepped forwards, and both he and Molly started yelling again. Arthur stared at them flatly for several moments, indicating he wasn't listening, but when they didn't seem to get the hint, he stood.

"I'm glad we had this talk. Have a good day tomorrow, I've got to get prepped." He concluded coldly and left them both there.

Molly caught Buster's eye and they exchanged concerned glances, before going their separate ways.

**To Be Continued…**


End file.
